Oct 17, 2021
Don’t Bug Me! on Apple Arcade — Cute and Intense Tower Defense
At first glance, I was unimpressed with Don’t Bug Me. It came across as too simple and it’s not the most beautiful game in Apple Arcade. It has serviceable looks and minimal music and UI.
That is why, I have a strict, ‘Patiently play again after 24 hours’ policy. If a game is not fun, I wait out and try playing it again. I repeat this for almost a week. I follow the same policy for TV shows too. Sometimes, it takes a while for a story or a game to take off.
I am glad I did. After the initial play time, the game got fun and exciting. Just like any other Tower Defense game. It’s still a dull, boring typical tower defense experience.
It’s good boring.
Usual Tower Defense Tropes
Tower Defense games are an interesting genre. They are fun in short bursts and you cannot play them for more than a few hours. At first, it begins as a game that demands planning, strategy and game plan. Unfortunately, every tower defense game I have ever played, devolves into a game of ‘fastest fingers first’.
Depending on your own ability and reflex speeds, you will reach a point at which the enemies become overwhelming too fast. That is the nature of the beast.
A good tower defense ensures that you don’t reach this point too fast. Dont Bug Me!, at least in my case, was a fun and dull experience. Except for an occasional level here and there where I messed up, the game is well balanced. The defensive blocks and shooting towers are upgraded at regular intervals. There seems to be just enough time to build what is needed to be built.
The setting is also a nice one. The game takes place in Mars. Thanks to NASA, perhaps one day, humans will colonize mars. Then, we can go ahead and ruin mars just like we are ruining earth. There is a friendly AI character which indulges in some text based conversations. Some of it is good chit-chat.
It’s short and ends before it becomes dull.
Final Note
There is nothing bad about this game. There is nothing great about it either. Ultimately, the only reason to play this (and it is a good reason) is because, so far, it is the ONLY tower defense game in Apple Arcade.
If you are itching for a good tower defense, this is only option. It’s a good, bare bones option though.
I work as a full time freelance coding tutor. Hire me at UpWork or Fiverr or Stack Overflow. My personal website is here. Find more of my art at Behance and Unsplash.
